Glenridding Dodd is a fell

Fell

“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, an outlier of the Helvellyn range

Helvellyn range

Helvellyn range is the name given to a part of the Eastern Fells in the English Lake District, fell being the local word for hill. The name comes from Helvellyn, the highest point of the group....

 in the Eastern Fells

Eastern Fells

The Eastern Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Centred on Helvellyn they primarily comprise a north south ridge running between Ullswater and Lakeland's Central Valley.-Partition of the Lakeland Fells:...

. It looks down the upper reach of Ullswater

Ullswater

Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being approximately nine miles long and 0.75 miles wide with a maximum depth of slightly more than ....

.

Topography

Despite being a top on the eastern ridge of Sheffield Pike

Sheffield Pike

Sheffield Pike is a fell in the English Lake District, an outlier of the Helvellyn range in the Eastern Fells. It stands on the eastern side of the range, looking down on Ullswater.-Topography:...

, Glenridding Dodd has sufficient prominence to rank as a separate fell. This was the view taken by Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...

 in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is a series of seven books by A. Wainwright, detailing the fells of the Lake District in northwest England...

where it receives its own chapter. Wainwright states that "when people climbed hills only for the sake of the views, the heathery summit of Glenridding Dodd must have been more frequented than it is today, for the once popular paths of ascent are now overgrown and neglected.". This view is supported by more modern guidebooks.

Glenridding Dodd is separated from Sheffield Pike to the west by The Rake, a depression at 1,300 ft. North of the fell is the little valley of Mossdale Beck, beyond which Sheffield Pike's second eastern ridge falls through Glencoyne Wood to the lake. East of its summit, Glenridding Dodd itself falls steeply to Ullswater with considerable areas of outcropping rock. The lower part of the slope is wooded, the name according to one reference being Stybarrow Oaks. The most striking feature is on the shore itself, the face of Stybarrow Crag appearing out of the trees and looming above the lakeside road.

To the south of the fell are its namesake valley and village. In pre-tourist times the growth of Glenridding was based on the profitability of Greenside Mine, from which lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 and silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 were won for around two hundred years. The remains of the surface works can still be seen on the slopes of Sheffield Pike. Across Glenridding are the claw shaped end of Birkhouse Moor

Birkhouse Moor

Birkhouse Moor is a fell in the English Lake District, an outlier of the Helvellyn range in the Eastern Fells. It is properly an eastern ridge of Helvellyn, but was treated as a separate fell by Alfred Wainwright in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells...

 and Keldas, its delectable subsidiary top.

Geology

Geologically the fell is representative of the Birker Fell Formation, part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. This formation consists mostly of undivided andesite lavas and sills.

Summit and View

The top of Glenridding Dodd is an east west ridge, heather clad with rocky outcrops and the odd patch of bog. A large cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

 marks the summit at the western end, and further cairns point to viewpoints for the lake and village. For a low fell the view is good, although Helvellyn

Helvellyn

Helvellyn is a mountain in the English Lake District, the apex of the Eastern Fells. At above sea level, it is the third highest peak in both the Lake District and England...

is obscured by Birkhouse Moor.

Ascents

Ascents can be made from Glenridding, or from the lakeshore by Stybarrow Crag. There are no paths on the top of the fell- barring the ridge to Sheffield Pike- and the easiest access is via the Rake, climbing from either side.